Tyla
walks up four flights of stairs in an old apartment block until she
reaches her door. She unlocks door and almost falls in, dropping her
suitcase and backpack on the wooden floor. She looks around the
large open area that has a couch, two beanbags and dinning table with
only three chairs. She can see various rooms leading off the main
area. She sighs. It's not at all what she expected.

"Hello
there!" Tyla turns to see a shaggy and slightly over-weight guy
rising from the couch. "You must be the girl that's sharing my
room."

Tyla
laughed nervously. "Ah no, I was told I had my own room. I'm
Tyla."

Tyla
acknowledges and drags her stuff inside. She opens up the blinds and
looks around at the double bed, a side table with a lamp and a small
desk for studying. "Wow, it's small!"

Gerrick
leans against the doorframe and winks. "Yeah, well my room is
bigger."

Tyla
smiles slightly. "It's okay, this will do fine. How many people
share this place?"

"Well
that depends. Three actually pay rent, then there's the
crash-overs after parties and drop-ins. Sometimes we have as many as
ten people."

"Bathrooms?"

"Only
one and if you don't get up early, you get cold water. But being
country, you should be used to cold water," he jokes.

She
bit her lip. "Yeah, we like to bathe in creeks," she growls out.

"Really?"

Tyla
rolls her eyes.

"Cool! Look, I have to pay my rent so if you like, I can take your money
down to the keeper of this dump," offers Gerrick

"Ah,
no thanks, I paid last week."

"Really? Well, as long as you paid your bond I guess they can't take your
room away."

"Bond? Nothing was said about a bond. How much is it?" asked Tyla,
getting worried.

"It's
150. I'm going that way, so if you give me the money I can pay it
for you." Gerrick smiles sweetly.

"Umm
. . . okay." Tyla pulls money from her bag and hands it over to
Gerrick. "Can I get a receipt so I can claim it?"

Gerrick
takes the money. "What? Oh yeah, sure. Later, sweet thing."

Tyla
has a nagging feeling about what she had just done, but Gerrick
seemed like a nice guy. Later on during the day she hears the front
door open and two voices enter. She walks out of her room and is
greeted by two more apartment dwellers.

John
is 26, very athletic and studying engineering. Julie is 22 and
studying for an arts degree.

John
gets the girls some drinks and they begin to get acquainted. Tyla
tells them that she didn't know about the bond until Gerrick told
her. Garrick offered to make the payment for her, so she gave him
the money.

Julie
groaned and John just shook his head.

"Tyla,
you shouldn't have given him the money. There is no bond."

Julie
nods in agreement.

"But
he seemed so nice."

"So
do strays, but if you keep feeding them, they keep pestering you,"
said John.

"Well,
if I ask, I'm sure he'll give it back."

Julie
shrugged. "I doubt it. He never has any money of his own. I
think it's gone. Look, nice to meet you honey, but I have to head
off." She hugs Tyla and walks out.

Tyla
groans, "I'm not going to survive the next five years."

John
smiles. "You'll be fine. Welcome to the mad house."

"Does
anyone study around here?" asks Tyla.

John
laughs as he heads to his room. "Study? As little as possible. Enjoy the culture Tyla, and trust no one, especially Gerrick."

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